Color Me Kubrick

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Magnolia Pictures

Taking its cue from the real-life exploits of a con man who managed to pass himself off as Stanley Kubrick while the famed filmmaker was directing "Eyes Wide Shut," "Color Me Kubrick" is at best a kitschy "Catch Me If You Can" and at worst a tedious comedy that grows more tiresome by every self-consciously irreverent minute.

Directed by Brian Cook, a Kubrick assistant director, and written by author Anthony Frewin, who received an assistant credit on several of Kubrick's films, this John Malkovich vehicle strains for something droll, but the best it can muster up is a glib ennui that proves anything but colorful.

This Magnolia Pictures release debuts simultaneously on HDNet just ahead of a Tuesday DVD release, but it's unlikely many customers will take a shining to any of the various platforms.

Malkovich sluggishly drags out his trunk of trick accents to portray Alan Conway, a fey, passive-aggressive poseur who assumes the identity of the Bronx-born, U.K. resident despite looking or acting nothing like Kubrick or even knowing all that much about his life or work.

That doesn't seem to stop a parade of dupes -- especially of the young, male variety -- from being taken in by Conway. They take Conway in to their homes and lives, blindly allowing him to leech off of their star-struck good intentions.

Conway's bad behavior ultimately catches up with him, but it's long past the point of caring anymore on the viewer's end.

Despite a lively supporting ensemble, including long-time-no-seen Honor Blackman, Marisa Berenson and Ken Russell, "Color Me Kubrick" is a faux farce that fails to make for a convincing piece of entertainment.